'The only document on the table'

Whether Israel accepts the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative to end violence in the occupied territories may have less to do with the finer points of the proposal than with the broader issue of whether Israel really wants peace at all. Tarek Atia and Nevine Khalil report
The confusion that erupted on Sunday following the visit by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to both Cairo and Amman to discuss Israel's response to the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative to jump-start the peace process laid bare the current state of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
The visit and its aftermath seemed to confirm Cairo's concerns about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the de-railed peace process, which centre on a basic premise: that even if Israel accepts the initiative, there are grave doubts as to whether Sharon will implement it accordingly. The initiative, which has garnered the support of European powers and Russia (thanks, in large part, to President Hosni Mubarak's recent European tour, where he secured the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin) has also received the tepid blessing of the United States. US Ambassador to Egypt Daniel Kurtzer has called it "very, very important ... we have said positive things about it."
The main thrust of the initiative is implementing last October's Sharm Al-Sheikh understanding regarding the withdrawal of Israeli troops to the lines of 28 September, the date the Intifada broke out. It calls for an end to the violence on both sides, and a freeze on provocative Israeli settlement activities. Sharon's decision to send Peres to flesh out the proposal in Egypt and Jordan was a seen as a good sign that the Israelis were finally coming around and signalled that fervid behind-the-scenes Egyptian efforts might be paying off. But at the same time, the Israelis had made it clear that both the settlement issue, and the proposal's clauses on the start (four weeks after a cease-fire) and span (one year) for final status negotiations, were not fully to their liking.
Foreign Minister Amr Moussa made it clear that Egypt will not accept any changes on these points. Calling the settlements "unlawful," Moussa affirmed: "We can never give their existence or their expansion any legitimacy." As for timing of final status talks, Moussa argued that Israel wants the issue of the negotiations to be left hanging, but the Arabs cannot accept that. Perhaps more importantly, Moussa made clear to Peres that Egypt's "optimism can't be based just on words, but only on actions and reality."
Peres's visit seemed to crystallise just how difficult that optimism would be to come by. Only hours after President Mubarak was urged by Peres to announce to the world that "an understanding was reached between the two sides to halt the violence and relaunch talks within weeks," Peres appeared to pull the rug from underneath Mubarak by denying, in subsequent press conferences, that a truce was near.
The next day Mubarak did not mince words. In a nationally televised Labour Day speech, Mubarak said that Tel Aviv was up to its "usual troublemaking." Quoting from the minutes of the previous day's meeting with Peres, Mubarak said, "[The Israelis] said that, and I quote, 'they had held a meeting with two Palestinians who said they were authorised by [Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat to negotiate and they reached an understanding for a cease-fire and relaunching talks'."
Meanwhile, the facts on the ground proved, once again, that the Israelis have a penchant for saying one thing and then doing something else altogether. A phone call to Mubarak from Arafat just a few hours after the conference confirmed that no agreement had been reached. "I didn't make this up," Mubarak said. "I got my information from them. But in any case we're used to these tricks by the Israelis."
In Jordan, meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Khatib, after his meeting with Peres, said that "some of the Israeli points on the proposal have to do with language ... while others have to do with major substantial issues." He added: "We will study these Israeli points with Egypt in order to reach a position on them."
Moussa is clearly resistant to substantive changes to the initiative. "The initiative, in our opinion, is complete, but we are ready to listen to any thoughts, so long as they don't touch upon the basic principles of peace," Moussa said. It is becoming clear to Cairo that constant international pressure on Israel may be the only way to convince Sharon to accept the initiative as is.
In light of the confusion over Israel's acceptance of the proposal, and in absence of a more active American role, Egypt is seeking increased UN involvement. Although UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the initiative "a good starting point," diplomatic sources feel he has "not thrown his weight behind it." The meeting of the Non-aligned Movement's Palestine committee in Pretoria, South Africa, today and tomorrow is an attempt to put more pressure on Annan to do so.
The Pretoria talks will focus on a recent UN Human Rights Commission report highlighting human rights infractions in the region. The report holds the weight of the UNHCR, which has 52 member-countries, and even though 22 European countries abstained from backing the report, the strength of the institution behind it is considered one of its strong points.
The Arab League is also moving along the same track with efforts to put the issue of UN peacekeeping forces in the occupied territories back on the Security Council's agenda.
Whether or not all those efforts run into the same Israeli brick wall is another story altogether. What is clear, however, in the words of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, is that this initiative is "the only document on the table which may get us out of the circle in which we are living now."
Additional reporting by Lola Keilani in Amman
Recommend this page
Related stories:
A case of double speak
Sharon reverts to his Beirut tactics
'Here I shall die'
The skeleton in Israel's closet
Birds of a feather
Killing debate
Thinking about Israel
The road taken 26 April - 2 May 2001
Returning to the cause 26 April - 2 May 2001
Go, destroy and leave 26 April - 2 May 2001
A bloody amnesia 26 April - 2 May 2001
Imminent war 26 April - 2 May 2001
Sharon ups the ante 19 - 25 April 2001
Losing is losing is losing 19 - 25 April 2001
Intifada in focus
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor